In various modes of transportation, passenger seats may be placed behind a structure. During a minor crash landing, a passenger may be thrown forward so that the passenger's head and/or body strikes these structures due to inertial loads from the event. Typically, these structures are rigid in nature, so as not to provide any energy absorbing or deflecting features. As a result, passengers may experience head injuries due to impact with these conventional structural designs.
As a particular example, passenger seats may be positioned adjacent a passenger door where an escape slide is mounted to an interior surface of the passenger door. The escape slide is typically enclosed with a door bustle, wherein the door bustle is usually formed of a material that is rigid in nature. Because the door bustle extends into the interior of the cabin in the space forward of a passenger seat positioned adjacent the passenger door when the passenger door is closed, a passenger seated in that seat may impact the door bustle in the event of a crash and may experience head injuries or other injuries as a result.
Thus, it may be desirable to provide structures with airbag modules within a potential strike zone on a door bustle to provide a surface with energy absorbing features so as to reduce the severity of potential head injuries that passengers may experience during a minor crash.